5/7/99 American Theatre, St. Louis, Missouri

Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 19:58:18 -0400
From: Kirk's [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Best Night of my Life!!! 

This is my review for the St. Louis Trey solo tour May 7, 1999

Let me start out by saying that I really don't know if that show was a
dream or not.  The morning of I waked and baked, got out of bed and got
on gadiel's to check out the setlists from the Indi show. When I was on
there I looked to see where Trey was playing that night. I live in
Kentucky and didn't think it would be that bad of a drive to St Louis.
So, I went on Ticketmaster Online and actually got two tickets! It was
awesome! Well, all my friends were out of town and busy so I called up my
Dad and asked hm if he wanted to go on a road trip to see Trey. He was
like, Hell yeah, Let's go now. It was such a gorgeous day. The sky was
blue, the grass was emerald, and the sun was shining. Perfect day for a
road trip. We got there in about seven hours. Since Dad was with me we
got a room at the hotel conected to the American Theatre. After I parked
to car I got out and was right in line! Since it was GA we waited in line
for a little over an hour so we could get close to the stage.  When we
got in we got down on the floor but didn't make it in time to get down to
the orcastra pit. Dad wanted a seat so he went up to the balcony. I    
stayed on the floor. I was just stading up chillin' when I look up and
this security guard tells me to come over to him. I was like, What did I
do? When i went up to him gave me a wrist band to get into the pit. I was
thrilled. I made my way down there and snaged a front row spot! About ten
minutes later I feel a tap on my shoulder. It was Brad, the manager! He
gave me two backstage passes for the aftershow party! I totaly freaked!
I've actually dreamed about this. The thought of me meeting Trey made my
heart stop. I have always wanted to thank him and have the chance to meet
him. No sooner did that happen, the lights went off. I went crazy. I was
grining from ear to ear.

I loved New Train Song as an opener! "It took me awhile to get back on
the train."  His vocals and pickin was flawless. The Wolfman's Brother
was the funk! The narrative about Fish being the Wolfman's brother was
hilarious! I absolutely love Mountains in the Mist! It floated me away. I
am a big fan of this one. Guyute was simple BADASS! I couldn't believe
the speed Trey was playing at. You could tell it was a challenge for him. 
I couldn't have asked for a better first set opener. Roger Halloway A.K.A
Crazy Little Kid came out and played Aftermath with Trey on acoustic
guitars. They had played it in forteen years. I loved it! AC/DC Bag was
the SHIT! An it getting backstage passes wasn't enough, when Roger and
Trey walked off the stage Roger threw the pick out in the crowd and I
CAUGHT IT!!!!! During the set break I decided to give it away to Roger's
wife, Jen becauseit was a real special night for the two of them. About
six years ago Roger proposed to Jen on that very stage. She was
overjoyed.

Second set was AMAZING!!!!!!!!          

Date: Sat, 8 May 1999 14:58:20 EDT
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Trey St.Louis

      Very nice show. It was my first show on that tour didn't really know
what to expect but I knew trey would not dissappoint. He played a few songs
from Hoister. trey was very chatty remarked how the vibe was gerat and asked
had anyone seen phish when they played the same venue.  And them Rogeg
Halloway came out and they played Aftermath( the white disc), trey remarked
that they hadn't played this song in 15 years. Since they recorded it. Very
nice extended acoustic jam. Trey said they were going to try and make
revisions and close the book on it. They next played AC/DC "Just like roger
he's a crazy little kid" for roger's namesake. Very nice extended acoustic
jam. Second set was nice. Voodo chile extended and rocked out. Ooh child nice
cover. I can see clearly now. Alot of extended spacey jams. Very nice trey
picking. If you have the opportunity to see a trey show GO! Don't take my
word for it. His shows are the essence of phish. Like Zappa Guitar, its
trey's incredible screaming GUITAR.


Date: Sat, 08 May 1999 12:51:54 PDT
From: brian turner [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: 5/7 review (revised!)

The American Theater - 5/7/99
Trey Anastasio

ok, let me start by saying that I^�m doing this because it^�s helpful to know
before you go to one of these shows just what the general atmosphere is like
because it^�s definitely different from any phish show that I^�ve seen in
recent years.

I go to school in Grinnell, Iowa which is about a 5-6 hour drive from the
nearest place where trey was going to play so we decided that the American
would be the easiest ticket to get and most affordable show.  So we hiked
down the random Iowa and Missouri highways all day to come away from two
just damn fine sets.  We got there at about 6:00 or a little after and the
line was already around the block.  I imagine kids were waiting outside all
day because the first 300 inside got to stand in the space in front of the
stage.  We picked some nice seats on the balcony about 5 or 6 rows up up
from stage left, but it didn^�t matter too much, it still looked as if trey
stared right at me a few times (as he does for all of us).  There was no
vending outside, just a couple groups drinking beer in the parking lot and
very few people asking for extras. IN fact there were more people trying to
get rid of tickets as this show was the last to sell out.  I had the feeling
that most people were there for that night only, but there were a few asking
for rides and so forth.  I^�ve never seen a St. Louis crowd before, but it
was pretty chill inside and trey actually remarked on that later.

I went down with five friends and two of us had briefly heard the Guyute
from Winooski and we were a little concerned about the crowd noise and so
forth.  I went to the garden shows for new years and I couldn^�t imagine a
phish crowd ever toning down enough to hear an acoustic set. The show on the
28th where the band brought the mini stage out and I couldn^�t hear a word
really bothered me. (I was on the floor too) But, nevertheless we were
extremely pleased with the way things went after the first set ended. After
all, there is a large difference in crowd type the further west you go which
is really tough to put a finger on.  I think that there is less distinction
between "phish-heads" and "dead-heads" but I really won^�t get into it. But
trey remarked on how mellow a crowd it was compared to his other shows so
far (I was hoping for a gamehendge at that point)  There were a lot of
"SHHHHHH^�s!!!!" and sometimes I felt they were a little out of hand
themselves.  It^�s better to have a brief "Wooo" during the middle of a song
I feel than a just as loud "SHHHH." But that was pretty much just for the
beginning of the show.

Trey came out in a black shirt, plain pants and boots.  Very laid back.  I
was pleased to see that the acoustic guitar he played had a mic for itself
rather than an amped acoustic with a cord.  It just sounded GOOD.  The first
song was the "New Train Song." The chorus to this one goes "It took me a
long time to get back on the train."  I think the crowd was ready for a
bunch of new tunes that night but we actually got a lot more phish stuff
than he^�s been playing at the previous shows.

WOLFMAN^�S: nice.  Trey played mike^�s line at the beginning and serenaded us
with that  pretty voice of his.  He started to jam and then in the middle of
no where trey just stopped and started laughing.  Now let me just say here
that I^�ve never seen trey just stop a song so abrubtly as he did and the
crowd accordingly cheered and listened to what he had to say.  The whole
time, laughing, he talked about the fact that everytime they played that
song he thought back to 1983 where he was a student at UVM standing in line
one day and just fell on the floor laughing the first time he saw this guy
with a tie dye tee shirt down to his knees, big, wide rimmed glasses, and a 
sort of half-beard "type thing". He then talked about how the Wolfman^�s
Brother can be considered to be Fishman and that it was just like John
Lennon and Paul McCartney^�s huge deal about "The walrus was Paul."  This was
hilarious.  He looked like he was just going to pick up the jam again but
decided not to and started up farmhouse.  Farmhouse was very ~pretty~ (for
lack of a more descriptive word) again and I think that^�s what most of this
set was about.  Basically seeing how many people could just fall in love
with trey and his sweet song^�at least that^�s what I felt. The crowd at one
point chanted "WE LOVE YOU TREY" which made me laugh a bit.  Dogs Stole
Things sounded really good with just one instrument.  It^�s a simple story
song and I thought it definitely placed well in this type of setting.

BOUNCIN^�:  Well, the people making "SHHH" sounds lost the battle on this one
when the crowd sang both refrains on the chorus and Trey was just smiling
smiling smiling.  This was the largest amount of crowd participation I^�ve
ever heard at a show and I really thought it sounded good.  I think it was
nice for trey to know that even in St. Louis his crowds hang on his words
and know them.

KISS BY MIST:  This is the one written for Julia "Butterfly" Hill who Trey
called the modern-day lorax.  He spent a good minute or two talking about
her protest of old-growth forest destruction which pleased me a great deal,
as it is an issue of great importance to me.  I really like how the band has
become involved with the current social and environmental movements.  I like
the fact that they have begun to utilize their popularity and increasing
fame for beneficial purposes such as farm-aid and the concert at the
fillmore earlier.  (as well as a bunch of other fundraisers)  We need more
bands like Phish out there!  The song was beautiful in my opinion although I
read a flaming review of it from another show.  The chord changes are
complex and there are a lot of lyrics.  Before the song trey talked about
the wacky idea he and tom marshall came up with about the trees plotting
against the people walking through and capturing them and sticking them in
the ground and making them trees.  He then played "another new one"
Mountains in the Mist.  Then came Guyute which was wonderful as always but a
little anti-climactic because when I usually hear this song I^�m bouncing up
and down and so forth with everybody else, but the whole balcony was sitting
(understandedly) and at the intense parts I really got the urge to move
around a bit. Wading in the Velvet Sea was nice.  During the jam Trey got a
big grin on his face, moved up the fret board and went right into Caspian,
which was simple, short, but beautiful!  I think he was just seeing how
pretty he could sound.

ROGER:  Trey told a story earlier about how his friend Roger Calloway had
gotten engaged on this same stage a couple years ago and asked if anybody
was there.  Lots of cheering ensued and he brought Roger up to bring back a
song on the White Tape that he wrote with Roger called Aftermeth.  This was
basically a nice acoustic guitar duet.  Trey said how some of the lyrics in
"Wilson" were named from this Roger and they then played AC/DC bag.  With of
course the line "just like roger he^�s a crazy little kid" an eruption from
the crowd and wide wide grinning from the stage.  Trey did the typical AC/DC
jam while Roger sang almost a country-ish type backing verse.  Picture Elvis
Presley singing A/C D/C Bag^�..

I know this is getting super long, but the first set was really the
highlight of the show for me.  The second set was basically marked by trey
jamming over a set bass and drum line.  At one point trey gave Tony a bass
solo, but not to much happened and I think he was a bit put on the spot.
They opened with Further on down the road, and the second piper-esque jam
was just amazing.  (I labled it holy shit on my paper, but I don^�t think
that^�s what the song should be named by any means).  It just built and built
into this amazing jam and I^�d really like to hear these tapes just for this
one.  Voodoo Child was wild and just about mimicked hendrix exactly (hell
yeah).  Ooh Child was definitely a crowd pleaser.  Jigloob was a tune I just
wasn^�t thrilled with, some of the jamming didn^�t really go very far, but it
was nice to dance again.  The drum jam was intense and I got the feeling
trey had been waiting his whole life to do it.  At first trey was just
catering to Russ^�s solo but they started jamming together and I labled it
drumz as it really sounded like a Bill/Mickey type jam.  Honestly.   The
lyric "here is the rainbow I^�ve been waiting for" in I can see clearly now
definitely made my night. At the end of the show Trey and Tony wished a
happy birthday to the guy at the mixing board, spotlighted him, and played a
birthday jam to end the show.  Trey said thank you and all that, they jammed
for a little while and then said that he though Tony had some words for the
crowd. Tony then told everybody to drive safely and call their mothers on
Sunday.

Sorry for the length again, but I hope everybody who can make it to these
shows does and has a nice safe trip.  We drove straight back to Grinnell
this morning and got here around 6 AM, but it was definitely worth it. Take
care everybody.

Brian Turner - [email protected]



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